Current Affairs
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Erosion present in 34% of nation's coastline: Centre

  • Posted By
    10Pointer
  • Categories
    Environment
  • Published
    25th Jul, 2022

Context

About 34 per cent of the coastline was under varying degrees of erosion for the past 28 years, as per recent update from the Centre.

  • The country’s coastline is 6,631.53 kilometres long.
    • The West Coast includes Gujarat, Daman and Diu, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka and Kerala.
    • The East Coast has Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal.

Key-highlights

  • The National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR) had been monitoring shoreline erosion using remote sensing data and GIS mapping techniques since 1990. 
  • A total, of 6,907.18 km long coastline of the mainland has been analyzed for the period from 1990 to 2018 and it is observed that (33.6 per cent) of the coastline is under varying degrees of erosion for the past 28 years.

Which state’s coastline is more vulnerable?

  • The West Bengal coastline has been particularly vulnerable: 60 per cent of the coastline underwent erosion during the period, followed by Puducherry (56 per cent); Kerala (41 per cent); Tamil Nadu (41 per cent); Andhra Pradesh (28 per cent); Gujarat including Daman and Diu (26 per cent); Odisha (26 per cent); Karnataka (24 per cent); Maharashtra (22 per cent); and Goa (19 per cent). 
  • Odisha coast expanded by 51 per cent, the report said.
  • This was followed by the coast of Andhra Pradesh, which expanded 48 per cent; Karnataka (26 per cent); West Bengal (25 per cent); Tamil Nadu (22 per cent); Kerala (21 per cent); Gujarat including Daman and Diu (20 per cent); Goa(14 per cent; Maharashtra (10 per cent) and  Puducherry (8 per cent). 
Responsible reasons for erosion

Coastal protection measures 

  • Rising sea levels
  • man-made (anthropological) effects
  • Increasing urbanization
  • Loss of plantation
  • damaged the mangrove and other green belts
  • development of integrated coastal zone management plan
  • prevention of soil erosion
  • shelterbelt plantation
  • mangrove plantation
  • strengthening and promoting ecosystem monitoring
  • biodiversity conservation and sustainable livelihood of coastal communities. 

Verifying, please be patient.

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